urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entries-c2524145-231a-410b-a548-2f6ec3bb1841Social Business Insights Blog - Tags - social-connections News and thoughts on becoming a business that is engaged, transparent and nimble. Join us in cultivating a spirit of collaboration and community.22015-03-03T18:38:51-05:00IBM Connections - Blogsurn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entry-06af0d1d-44ab-40ea-ba5d-87814efb71fa10 Great Social Business Features of IBM ConnectionsFrank Gullogullof@superiorgroup.com270006Y9C5activeComment Entriesapplication/atom+xml;type=entryLikes2014-01-22T10:57:29-05:002014-01-22T10:57:29-05:00<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:150%;">
<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Whenever I mention to other business professionals that my company has an internal social network, I get questions. Those familiar with social business tools ask me what we&rsquo;re using and how it&rsquo;s going. The uninitiated generally ask politely what social business is exactly. Both parties ask about the features and benefits.</span></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">I start off explaining that my company didn&rsquo;t pick a product as much as an integrated social, collaborative, and mobile technology solution. I then elaborate that we&rsquo;re using IBM Connections as our new social business Intranet platform. If necessary, I state that Connections is similar to Sharepoint and Jive, and is basically like a Facebook or LinkedIn for the inside of the organization.</span></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">As a social business solution, Connections includes many useful features for creating and collating content, sharing posts and files, and surfacing useful information. Below are ten of its best features:</span></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><strong>1. Activity feeds</strong></span></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Part Facebook wall, Twitter stream, and LinkedIn status list, the Connections activity feeds help you see what&rsquo;s happening across your network, with distinct feeds for people and things you&rsquo;re following, status updates from your network, and updates and comments related to your content. In my organizations, with people scattered across dozens of locations internationally, the feeds give employees a sense of what their co-workers are doing and what&rsquo;s happening in the company on the other side of the country or world.</span></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><strong>2. Profiles</strong></span></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Profiles are employee pages on Connections. Much more than a simple template limited to title, extension, and email address, profiles in Connections allow users to upload a photo, provide biographical and background information, post personal status messages, tag themselves with keywords and key phrases, and even upload an audio file of their name to assist with pronunciation.</span></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><strong>3. Communities</strong></span></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Similar to LinkedIn Groups, Connections Communities are collaboration places for groups of employees with a common interest or need. Communities may be focused around a departmental function, project, geographic location, or even interest or hobby. Communities may be public and open (anyone can contribute content), public and moderated (members must be approved by an owner to contribute content), or restricted (membership is invite only).</span></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><strong>4. Blogs</strong></span></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Blogs in Connections are straightforward and easy to use, both for employees simply interested in reading posts and commenting, as well as for employees interested in contributing content. Modeled after Internet blogs, Connections includes all the features commonly associated with blogs, including comments and moderation, tagging, and RSS.</span></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><strong>5. Wikis</strong></span></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Connections Wikis are simply mini websites consisting of one or more pages. Bundled with a simple rich text editor, Wikis provide a low barrier to entry allowing employees to begin generating web content.</span></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><strong>6. Files</strong></span></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Connections has versatile file management capabilities that make it easy to organize files and share them with others in the network. The file sharing capabilities are useful on their own, but they also provide a tool to eliminate much of the file attachment emailing and forwarding that is prevalent in many organizations today. Think Google Docs for the inside of an organization but within a social business network.</span></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><strong>7. Bookmarks</strong></span></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">When I first used Bookmarks in Connections, I was reminded fondly of Delicious, one of the first social bookmarking web service for storing, sharing, and discovering web links. In Connections, Bookmarks function very similar to standard social bookmarking services. You save links and share them</span></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><strong>8. Forums</strong></span></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Forums in Connections are derived from Internet discussion forums or online bulletin boards where people communicate through posted messages. Connections forums may be public or housed within a community, and individual forum topics may be pinned, locked, and flagged as inappropriate.</span></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><strong>9. Activities</strong></span></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">As Atul Gawande reminded us in <em>The Checklist Manifesto</em>, though simple, checklists are resoundingly versatile and can assist in the resolution of complex procedures and problems. Checklists are a core part of Activities, a social task management tool in Connections for creating tasks and action items, including assigning due dates and ownership.</span></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><strong>10. Tagging </strong></span></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Folksonomy, or collaborative tagging, is ubiquitous in Connections. Virtually any information input in the system can be tagged, and this functionality makes broad social indexing and content annotation possible at the enterprise level.</span></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">The above are just some of the useful features in Connections. The list is likely to grow with future versions and integrations.</span></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><strong>Author Profile</strong></span></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt; font-weight: normal;">At Superior Group, Frank Gullo serves as Director of Digital and Mobile Strategy. His primary function is to improve and maximize the firm&#39;s knowledge, skills, and abilities in the areas of digital marketing, mobile, and technology-driven marketing initiatives. </span><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white; font-weight: normal;">He also drives business innovation initiatives, including advocacy and evangelization of IBM Connections as the company&rsquo;s internal social business platform.</span></span></span></h4>
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<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white; font-weight: normal;">In his spare time, Frank volunteers as a firefighter and EMT. He is also the founder of the startup Date on Purpose, a platform that brings bachelor and bachelorette auctions online for charity.</span></span></span></h4>
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<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">Twitter:&nbsp; </span><a href="http://www.twitter.com/frankgullo/">http://www.twitter.com/frankgullo/</a><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;"> (@frankgullo)</span></span></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">LinkedIn:&nbsp; </span><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/frankgullo">http://www.linkedin.com/in/frankgullo</a><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;"> or visit user profile Frank Gullo</span></span></span></p>
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Whenever I mention to other business professionals that my company has an internal social network, I get questions. Those familiar with social business tools ask me what we&rsquo;re using and how it&rsquo;s going. The uninitiated generally ask politely what...135710urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entries-c2524145-231a-410b-a548-2f6ec3bb1841Social Business Insights Blog2015-03-03T18:38:51-05:00urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entry-b479a24d-2c37-4e34-89bb-e35fd49924d8Social Connections IV event demonstrates the power of communityJoyce DavisJOYCE_DAVIS@US.IBM.COM06000019G0activeComment Entriesapplication/atom+xml;type=entryLikes2012-12-07T08:30:00-05:002012-12-07T16:20:16-05:00<p><a '="" href="https://www-304.ibm.com/connections/blogs/socialbusiness/resource/BLOGS_UPLOADED_IMAGES/JoyceDec2007-80x80.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="image" src="https://www-304.ibm.com/connections/blogs/socialbusiness/resource/BLOGS_UPLOADED_IMAGES/JoyceDec2007-80x80.jpg" style=" display:block; margin: 1em 1em 0pt 0pt; float: left; position:relative;"></a> <b>By Joyce Davis<br>
</b><b>IBM Collaboration Solutions community manager</b><a '="" href="http://socialconnections.info" target="_blank"><img alt="image" src="https://www-304.ibm.com/connections/blogs/socialbusiness/resource/BLOGS_UPLOADED_IMAGES/soccnxiv-1.jpg" style=" display:block; margin: 1em 0pt 0pt 1em; float: right; position:relative;"></a> </p><div> </div><div><div class="lotusHeader eventsummaryHeader"><div> </div><div> </div><h1>Social Connections IV event demonstrates the power of community </h1></div><div> </div><div> </div>Last week in Amsterdam, I had the pleasure of participating in <a href="http://socialconnections.info">Social Connections IV</a>, a conference for IBM Connections users. As Alan Hamilton mentions in his <a href="http://alanghamilton.com/2012/12/01/social-connections-iv-my-pov/">great recap blog post</a>, this event is organized and run by a group of dedicated volunteers who genuinely care about building community and sharing knowledge around social business tools and techniques. <br><br><a '="" href="https://www-304.ibm.com/connections/blogs/socialbusiness/resource/BLOGS_UPLOADED_IMAGES/sharonfemkestuart.jpg
" target="_blank"><img alt="image" src="https://www-304.ibm.com/connections/blogs/socialbusiness/resource/BLOGS_UPLOADED_IMAGES/sharonfemkestuart.jpg
" style=" display:block; margin: 1em 1em 0pt 0pt; float: left; position:relative;"></a> This was the first user group event I'd attended and I was blown away! <a href="http://twitter.com/femkegoedhart">Femke Goedhart</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/stuartmcintyre">Stuart McIntyre</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/socialshazza">Sharon Bellamy</a> and <a href="http://twitter.com/simplys1mon">Simon Vaughan</a> led the planning, and their organizational skills and creativity shined! Starting with a great keynote presentation by <a href="http://twitter.com/ccrummey">Chris Crummey</a>, followed by 25+ breakout sessions and valuable social time where folks could connect and network, the conference was chock-full of opportunities to learn about and practice social business. Just days earlier, about 800 km northeast of Amsterdam, other volunteers were running the two-day <a href="http://www.dannotes.dk/">DanNotes</a> conference in Copenhagen. <br><br>As a community manager, it's inspiring to see so many people who truly understand the value of connecting with others who are passionate about collaboration and social business. Getting to know each other in real life makes our online experiences even richer, and I look forward to continuing conversations with many community members I met for the first time in Amsterdam. <br><br>I hope of you will be attending <a href="http://ibm.co/connect">IBM Connect</a> in January (don't forget discount registration ends on Monday!), and I hope that you'll also check out <a href="http://www.lotususergroup.org/eventsall.nsf/Events#top">local user group events</a> for those "mini-Connect/Lotusphere" experiences that occur throughout the year. Many thanks to all the volunteers who spend countless hours doing the behind-the-scenes work so that those of us attendees and speakers can just waltz in and soak it up. We appreciate it!<br><br>Be sure to check out the <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/soccnx">Social Connections Slideshare site</a> to view many of the presentations that were conducted in Amsterdam. I've embedded my "Seven Habits of a Successful Community Manager" slides below. I'm honored to have been asked to present and I hope to have the privilege to speak again someday (perhaps I won't be quite as sick-to-my-stomach nervous next time!).</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div>&nbsp;</div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" mozallowfullscreen="" src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/15515777" style="border:1px solid #CCC;border-width:1px 1px 0;margin-bottom:5px" webkitallowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="356" scrolling="no" width="427"> </iframe> <div style="margin-bottom:5px"> <b> <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/soccnx/7-habits-of-successful-community-managers" target="_blank" title="7 habits of successful community managers">7 habits of successful community managers</a> </b> from <b><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/soccnx" target="_blank">soccnx</a></b> </div>
By Joyce Davis
IBM Collaboration Solutions community manager Social Connections IV event demonstrates the power of community Last week in Amsterdam, I had the pleasure of participating in Social Connections IV , a conference for IBM Connections users....245631urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entries-c2524145-231a-410b-a548-2f6ec3bb1841Social Business Insights Blog2015-03-03T18:38:51-05:00